Hey, how about that. The first letter of the intro is large and bold. Weird, I never even noticed that before.

What? Oh, yes, I suppose I should introduce myself. Or something. My longest-running online nick, and the only one that's unique, is Chimerasame. However, you won't see that nick attached to the majority of the things I've done at RPGamer; those things are New Media updates, and I sign them with my "real" name, Rob Hamilton. Other nicknames I've gone by online have been "Legate_Garak," plain, simple "Garak," "Odo," and "Alfador."

So who am I, though? (Whoa, the code for that is odd-looking. <I>I</I>. (Whoa, the code for that is even MORE odd-looking, but these multiparenthetical statements could go on forever in this fashion, so if you want to see said code you'll have to view the source.)) I'm a Freshman/Sophomore hybrid at the University of Texas at Austin, presently majoring in pre-CS because there are some core requirements one must complete before one becomes an actual Computer Science major, at least at UT. My hope is to make a living designing RPGs. Failing that, programming them. Failing that, writing music for them or playing them or something. Ah, well, on the the Q&A section of this Q&A!

Since the word "Chimera" is in your name, but also "same" WTF do you
look like? Chimera means having characteristics of multiple things,
but same, well, you should know that one. Are you just like a total
contrast or something. (I need know in case I don't get a drawing
from Radrisol of which I base the models on :p)
Guif‡
"Accent on the A you fool!"

Chimerasame:
Ah, the history of this nick. It isn't very interesting, but I get asked about it somewhat frequently, so I might as well explain here where you can all read it and not have to ask me again later. A long time ago, on a bulletin board far, far away (one of Prodigy Classic's SNES games boards, actually), I used the nick Murasame. Now, it occurred to me then that that wasn't a particularly original name. There would probably be a number of people on the net who used that name, thought I. Though compared to a nick like Cecil or Locke, it would be a small number, the fact that it was greater than one was enough to make me want to add to it. Creating 'Chimera Murasame' out of a mythical beast and a mythical sword, I decided that was sufficiently unique, and the chances of anyone else going by both of those simultaneously was rather small.

So it might have stayed, if not for the character-length restrictions on nicknames in various arenas. For instance, the Prodigy Classic chat rooms, where the maximum length was 12 characters. The first thing I did was shorten it to "Chmra Mursme", but this was possibly more unpronouncable than the nick of the slime I'm filling in for right now, so I changed it to "Chimerasame," merging the two words.

The other meanings embedded, such as the "Chimera" and "same" discrepancy you mentioned, were an added bonus I didn't notice until later. Perhaps I'm a total contrast, a walking contradiction. I'm not THE Walking Contradiction, though, I believe that individual is a regular on RPGamer's Message Boards.

As far as what I look like.. well, there's a several-month-old picture, or the aforementioned Radrisol drawing at the bottom of the column. GuifA's 3D pic is down there, too.Oh, wait, that's not what he meant by accent, is it...

I know naught of hardware

So my incompetent roommates played too much Crash Team Racing and now on
one of my controllers the X button is permanently pressed. The
button still goes up and down, but the console thinks it is
permanently pressed. While not a problem with racing games (who lets off
the gas anyway?) it's a hassle when it comes to, say, anything else.

So I found a philips-head screwdriver, and I'm looking at my controller
pondering drastic home surgery. Has anyone done this before? Do I stand
a chance of fixing it? Or will I just break it more?

Thanks-Jed

Chimerasame:
If you try to fix it, and it stops working entirely, you have lost a controller that didn't have much use to begin with. Not a huge loss, that, the way I see it. I'd suggest you go for it, but you have to promise not to sue me or RPGamer for the loss of the controller if fixing it fails. ;>

Who did what in the what now?

Strangely enough, the voice actor for Pokemon's "Ash" also does Valkyrie
Profile's "Fuyuki." That's pretty cool, even though "Ash" has one of the
worst voices I've ever heard. They sound the exact freakin' same!

Ramrod Zombie

Chimerasame:
I don't really know a lot about voice acting, at least not yet. I watch subbed almost exclusively, so I don't know much about English voice actors, and I don't pay much attention to credits, so I don't know much about Japanese voice actors. However, I can think of at least one instance of a live actor playing two roles that struck me as about that weird. If you've ever seen Independance Day, you might remember the guy who worked in Area 51.. he had long grey or white hair, I don't recall which offhand, and seemed to be the head scientist. That guy's Brent Spiner, of all people. Lt. Cmdr Data!

Well, I thought it was weird.

Watch out for that Bracelet-breathing dragon

I know that it was Scar that brought this up, but I thought that everyone
should read this. It doesn't really matter how good or bad a translation is
(Tactics in peticular) as long as you understand what people are talking
about. Does anyone remember "Dodongo dislikes smoke" from the first Zelda?
I understand what it means: bombs make smoke, use bombs on Dodongo. So
anyways, as long as you understand wha people are saying, translation
quality dosn't matter.

Chimerasame:
While translations aren't the most important part of games, I certainly think they matter. Tactics was a very good game in spite of translation problems (and yes, there ARE translation problems; Scar mentioned at least one yesterday), but wouldn't it have been better still with a perfect translation?

Another thing I'm tempted to point out is that comparing things to the first Zelda really doesn't mean a lot. Imagine someone writing in, "Graphics and sound don't really need to be any better than an 8-bit system could handle. I mean, just look at the first Zelda." While there are a select few people that might agree with that particular claim, most would find it ridiculous. Translation isn't quite the same, since the translator works independantly of how powerful the system is (for the most part), but the premise is similar. Things have improved since the NES.

Searching for life-forms! (Ba da beep beep boop)

Heylas ChimeraGarakOdoSame,

"Blasphemy! You're lucky I don't cast you out or
smite you or something" I had to do that one. ;p
Well, I promised you a Star Trek question, so here
goes: In Generations, when the stardrive section is
being evacuated to the saucer before the core breach,
why in the name of all that's holy do they evacuate
Sick Bay? Every piece of information I've ever seen
on a Galaxy Class starship has Sick Bay on the saucer,
where the majority of the ship's crew lives. I know
the last place I'm gonna evacuate during a crisis is
the hospital. I think good ole Doctor Bev was dippin'
into grandpa's ole caugh medicine if you know what I
mean.

Barry

Chimerasame:
I love Star Trek, but it's not known for excellent consistency, especially with established laws of physics. Voyager once flew through a crack in the event horizon of a black hole.

On top of that, this was an odd-numbered movie. Except for Star Trek 3, the odd-numbered movies just weren't as good as the evens. (I'm also undecided about 9. It was entertaining, but more like long-episode entertaining than movie entertaining.)

We can always dream

To whom it may concern,

I have a major request to make to the people of SquareSoft, that i would like for you to deliver to them, and that is, Why were we denied of having Final Fantasy 4 (aka FF2 in US) in our Final Fantasy Anthology? As a fan of RPG's, I'd like to say, no matter who you ask or who you question about Final Fantasy 4, they shall never give you a doubt about it, it was so successful in it's early years, made Super NES and Super Famicom owners happy and full of awe, with this great achievement, as the 1st 16-bit Final Fantasy, but now, for new RPG players, it's hard for them to discover that same joy that we had back in 1992 in the US. and when the Anthology was 1st announced, it was just a wonderful thing and to hear that FF4, 5 and 6 were included was a shear gold mine of RPG goodness! Though, when the US date drew near, alas! We were denied of FF4! I was so irritated by this disappoint, why, why, why was FF4 taken away and replaced with a Music CD, (that was considered the "Worst" collection of FF Music in it's history) instead of the wonderful Final Fantasy 4. So hear our plead, I ask you, We Americans want our Final Fantasy 4 to come back home to the shores, suggest a FF Anthology 2! Let them think about it! SquareSoft of Japan needs to hear our demands, we are tired of being denied of great classics, much like the PS version of Crono Trigger, now we all know, if that was released in the US, we'd grab that in a heart beat. I don't care how long it would take, I will not rest until FF4 comes to PS in America!

Sincerely,

Timothy Aaron Brown

Chimerasame:
On general principle, I'd like to agree with this. If I had any influence with Square, I'd love to see an improved port of FFIV--it's my favorite game. I think I've played it all the way through over a dozen times. However, you have to consider whether the version in FF Anthology would have been improved much. You get an extra cinematic sequence or two, more than four save slots.. and possibly a more pristine translation. But would it really be all that different? FF6 wasn't, in Anthology. Plus, initiating the battles was slower than on the SNES. CDs are nice for holding lots of data, but not for accessing it very rapidly.

Another thing to consider is that it's possible we'll see FFIV come out for Bandai's 16-bit portable system, the WonderSwan. Square has announced FF I-III for it, and there is a distinct possibility that IV-VI will also be made, as well as the Seiken Denetsu series (Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana) and the Saga Series (Final Fantasy Legend games), at least, the games in those series for SNES or less powerful system. (It's unlikely we'll see Legend of Mana on a 16-bit portable.) I'm not positive of any of this, and I just said all I know about it--I say this because if I were to see this information in a column, I'd certainly ask for more information if there were any. ;> For now, the production of these beyond FFIII is unverified, and the possibility of translation to America is completely hypothetical.

Quickies

print this and ill laugh (you know you want to)

Not really, but what the heck, I will anyway.

I want to know who you are. I've been going on RPGamer for over a year and
have never seen your name turn up once. What section do you do?

I think this was two different people. Two addresses, anyway. I don't like jeans, but other pants are fine, otherwise it'd be cold. (Even Texas is chilly two or three days a year...)

What is a French castle doing in England?=Krishnamahavarithi=

Mind your own business!

Okay, Chimerasame, what is the coolest magical item you've got? I just have to know.

Ahh, sweet little Akane's panties!
~Happosai

Scar wouldn't like it if I gave the same answer he did, now, would he? I'd have to go with this Frosty from Wendy's. Mmmmm, chocolatey....

I see dead Pokˇmon!

You know, I've always wondered how blind people know where the Braille is, like in fast food places and such. Braille-detection, it's like some si- ... some fifth sense....

Hey I got this great idea playing FFT. Well, it's the execution scene and I died for about the 38th time so I threw the dual-shock at the screen, causing a nuclear apocolyse which had the same effect as a game I once played called 'Let's make toast in the bathtub!' so I covered myself in Glow Watches in order to start a Geiger Counter, but I really started a Giger counter which brought many nasty looking aliens down on me, so I ran and ran until my legs ran away and I was like "does anybody got any Cheetos?".Well, this was cetainly weird until the lapels started shoting greenish-purple fire at the approaching aliens. I cried out in victory only to see a puff of logic flying towards me, so I ran on my hands till it consumed me, then I disappeared and found myself in a trash can in the ghetto with bite marks all over me... Just trying to break in the new Q&A guy... Well... new to me...

Senshi no Jidai
formerly known as Insane.

Formerly?

*thwap*

Oh, oh... I'm so sorry.. I- I don't know what came over me... I take it back, really.

Just lettin' ya know that the quote up there is from the final battle in Final Fantasy Legend - of course I'm not certain, as I've never been so cheap as to attack the Creator with the SAW... feh. I beat him the normal way. Where's my tilde?! ^_^

-=Kristopher ¤teele=-

I got a lot of letters that were almost right about this, but didn't mention the saw. But I don't give tildes. You can have this crowbar, however: Ā

Hello Chim Chiminey, Here's your comic, your're fuzzy!

-Radrisol

Yeah, and I have a little floating wand, too, just like Guile! Heehee, thanks. Telekinesis is a plus in my book. :)

And also more of Chronodin's 3-D adventures:

The Last Laugh:

Well, just one more day of this and I'm back to New Media. And going to bed at a [more] reasonable hour. And watching lots of anime Friday evening. (Wait, that'd happen whether I did more Q&A or not.) Ah, well. Always remember the advice my father told me on my wedding day. "If you ever go back in time, don't touch anything! Because anything you change will draaaastically affect the future!"

That wasn't me, it was Homer. Consarnit, how many identities do I have, anyway?